Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC

A fantastic and suspenseful locked room mystery from Japan. I really liked the concept and it was greatly excecuted. Until the end I had no idea who the culprit was. I loved that I never guessed the ending and was smacked in the face with the plot twist and revelation.

The Labyrinth House Murders is a modern take on the classic locked room murder mystery. Yukito Ayatsuji represents a modern novelist revisiting and updating the golden age of murder mystery and has written 2 other locked room mysteries in the Bizarre House/Mansion Murders series.. And so to Labyrinth House, a group of authors and critics are invited to a birthday celebration by Miyagaki Yotaro, a famous author, however this celebration turns into something totally opposite to the celebration they were expecting.

As the title the plot has elements inspired by Greek mythology dealing with Theseus and the Minotaur. There are plenty of twists and turns to satisfy readers who love locked room mysteries however in the final set of reveals in the "Epilogue/Afterword" there is a discussion around evidence of the murderer and it was too silly and actually made little of no sense. If I could I would give this 3 and a half stars because of this.

Oh, I absolutely loved The Labyrinth House Murders. It's an incredibly well crafted, multilayered story, that left me utterly amazed by the ending.
In this tale, our protagonist Shimada Kiyoshi is attempting to solve a series of very bizarre murders a year or so earlier. The murders occurred at the home of the renowned murder mystery writer, Miyagaki Yotaro. Yotaro has invited a number of friends to celebrate his 60th birthday at his bizarre, labyrinth home. But someone was plotting murder, rather than a celebration.
The author, Yukito Ayatsuji, has included multiple hints towards the truth, but time and time again, I fell for the classic misdirection and did not succeed in guessing the final solution. Do I think the solution is realistic? No, but where would the fun lie in a murder mystery if realism played a part?

Structured as a book within a book about writers penning detective fiction, this is one where twists come thick and fast. Yes, you might have guessed the ending before it came but still an enjoyable read. 4*

Then, the final ‘twist’ came. No, dear readers, as a woman I am clear that this could not have happened as described. Sadly, this means that I’m down to a 2* review which is a shame because the rest of the novel warranted a much higher score.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Oh man, I was all set to come here and say this was my favourite of the Bizarre House Murders so far. 5 stars. Love the labyrinth. Love the use of Greek mythology. Love "the great detective" Shimada (always love Shimada).

But that dumb-ass final twist.

I wish I could say I loved the rest of the book enough that I could brush it off as One Of Those Things you simply have to put up with when you're reading a book written in the '80s by a male author, but it was so heinously unnecessary I cannot. This could have just been the book within the book and it would have been perfect. Some reviewers have said the resolution for that was too easy (maybe it was, I figured it out before Shimada after all) but I'll take easy over idiotic any day of the week.

The book is fast-paced, plot driven and on top it's a locked room mystery. all rooms in the house have names from the Greek myths surrounding Minotaur.I really liked that touch. Ayatsuji cleverly mentioned a few key facts to the readers in his creative writing style,that makes it impossible to guess the identity of the murderer . Overall I enjoyed the plot and was hooked.

I love this author and this series! I have to say the first book is still my favourite but this one is close-ish, I guessed some of the plottwists again but not nearly as early as in the last book and the writing and discussion of the mystery genre and it's writing kept me on edge andthinking. One were probably able to see the cogwheels in my head turning as I was traing to keep up with the book in the book in the book and the final plottwist just literally felt like Ayatsuji was just pulling your leg for funsies now.

As an avid (Japanese) mystery reader, this series actually so openly experimenting with the different genre tropes and writing techniques and styles makes me happy and I think it is what keeps me reading even if I guess plottwists early on. I start to actually get jealous of the translator as it seems to interesting to work on this series as a translator and I hope I get the chance to later on in my job career to get to translate a series like this.

4/5

Of the three detective stories I have read so far by this author, this one is definitely the most unique and one of those that is still not completely clear to me. Probably the chronologically nonlinear construction and the four stories within stories contribute, and not a little, to the confusion, but I guess it is all designed to give the reader this sense of being lost.

Dei tre gialli che ho letto fino ad ora di questo autore, questo é sicuramente quello piú particolare ed uno di quelli che ancora non mi é completamente chiaro. Probabilmente la costruzione cronologicamente non lineare ed le quattro storie dentro le storie, contribuiscono e non poco, alla confusione, ma immagino sia tutto studiato.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

*3.5

I read this as an arc - so I'm gonna go into the details now. I do think that this is really similar to Agatha Christe with a twist. I was reading this and immediately thought of Witness of the Prosecution, her play. I think that the characters could've definitely been better developed, since for example, there was a woman who was a wife to this man, and she was a doctor and that seemed to be her only personality. However, the plot does add up for it and take you on an adventure. I personally found it interesting, especially the links to Greek mythology is what really interested me. I would definitely give it a go, especially to anyone that likes Agatha Christe.

TW: Suicide

The Labyrinth House Murders is without a doubt my favourite book in the Yukito Ayatsuji's House Murders series. The "book within a book" concept is brilliant, and the fast-paced, twisty murder plot with thrilling murder scenes kept me hooked from start to finish. The references to Greek mythology were a delightful touch, adding a lot of depth and intrigue.
The ending was very satisfying, wrapping everything up wonderfully! I did have some reservations regarding a specific detail involving the murderer's blood, but it’s a minor issue in what was otherwise a flawless story.

Wow! I loved it. Plot twist after plot twist. This one is definitely my favorite of the three published in this House series. This one is much more complex and full of very satisfying twists and turns throughout. I wonder if it was more guessable for someone who has a knowledge of Japanese life and culture as there are certain key aspects of the mystery which will be impossible for a non-Japabese reader to think of as clues. Although, I dare say that they are so skilfully hidden that they will either way not be easynto spot.

I was a little unconvinced with the explanation of the blood though. Felt a little forced though and made me wonder if it was actually possible. 4.5 stars otherwise.

Looking forward to more from the author. Thank you Pushkin Press for bringing so many wonderful Japanese mystery novels in translation. Thanks to the publisher, the writer, the translator and Netgalley for the e-copy.

I’ve seen the first two books of this series in the bookstore and have always been curious about them (largely due to the cool cover art). While I’m glad I gave it a try, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I’d hoped.

<b>What worked for me:</b>
👍 Cover art is really eye-catching (although I did notice they missed a trick not designing it along the same lines as the book-in-the-book was described as!)
👍 The maps of the labyrinth were a nice touch. Appreciated cast list but it was difficult to access on the ARC PDF format (and while I found the real names vs author names vs fake book names confusing as heck, I appreciated learning about why author names were/are used on the Japanese literary scene)

<b>What I wasn’t so keen on:</b>
👎 I’m really noticing that I don’t enjoy reading about authors/writers - I find them tedious, pompous, and exhausting to spend time with.
👎 The book-within-a-book isn’t a style I enjoy. This was four books in a book in a book!
👎 Plot is predictable and has been done to death. Given the dated references, I assumed this book is a few decades old and looked it up: it was first published in 1988! It's older than me! In 1988, it might have been a banger; but, in 2024, I’ve read this plot too many times. I’m also running out of steam with Greek myths.
👎 I was going to give this three stars but the bull head “gotcha” is so r/menwritingwomen bad, I just… can’t. That’s <I>really</I> not how women work.
👎 This isn't a 'fair play' mystery and while I had solved most of it (again, a plot that's been done to death), there was at least one thing that the reader is in the dark about for the whole book; for me, this made the ending feel a bit cheap.
👎 Writing style was straightforward and so dry! The ending was all insultingly overexplained, leaving nothing to nuance of imagination. It was like reading a report, not something designed to entertain.

This might have just been a bit of a reader/book mismatch: perhaps individual mileage may vary depending on how tired of some of these tropes you are.

I’m appreciative of Pushkin Press for making this available on NetGalley, thanks for letting me give this a whirl.